Europe's Would-be Elite Struggle With Porous Borders

To Gain Eu Membership, Countries Such As The Czech Republic Must Crack Down On Illegal Immigration, But Resources Are Sorely Lacking.

September 10, 1998|By David Rocks. Special to the Tribune.

STARY HROZENKOV, Czech Republic — With only the stars in the cloudless night sky to guide him, Vit Blaho picked his way along a low ridge separating the Czech Republic from Slovakia, his eyes trained on the woods to either side, his ears alert to any unusual sounds.

"It's pretty much just luck if we manage to find anyone," the 32-year-old border guard said with a sigh as he patrolled the 10-mile stretch of frontier his station is assigned to cover. "There are lots of them," he said of the illegal immigrants he is trying to intercept, "and not very many of us."

On this cool summer night, there were only four: Blaho walked the rocky ridge-top path by himself while his partner kept an eye on a dirt road a half-mile away. A two-man canine patrol lower in the valley followed the trained nose of a German shepherd.

"We need at least seven patrols to cover this part of the border," Blaho said, gazing into the darkness. "But it's rare that we even have two."

That worries officials responsible for dealing with the flood of economic migrants seeking work cleaning houses, mowing lawns or hammering nails in Paris, London, Frankfurt or, increasingly, even Prague.

As the Czech Republic, Estonia, Poland, Hungary and Slovenia prepare themselves for entry into the European Union--becoming the front line of defense against illegal immigration into the union--authorities in Brussels are concerned that the new members' borders will be too porous.

Since 1993, the so-called Schengen Agreement has removed most border formalities between EU member states, which means any effort to stop illegal immigration by land has to take place on the union's frontiers. Today, that task falls to Germany and Austria, whose border police have budgets and equipment to match their countries' economic strength.

As the EU expands sometime in the next decade, though, protecting the union's borders will become the responsibility of the poorer and arguably less organized countries of Central and Eastern Europe.

"If the Czech Republic or any of the other countries are to join the European Union, we'll have to have sufficient confidence in their ability to act as an external border," said David Ringrose, deputy chief of the EU's delegation in Prague. "We think there's considerable work to be done."

And while the problems of patrolling the eastern borders of Poland and Hungary will no doubt create substantial headaches, the Czech-Slovak border presents a special problem: Six years ago, it didn't even exist. During the 74 years of the Czechoslovak federation, there were no limits on crossing the border and there was no special security presence along the rivers, ridges and meadows that since 1993 have formed the frontier between the independent Czech and Slovak republics.

Today, the roads and paths that criss-cross the area are the main route of entry for illegal immigrants to the Czech Republic. In 1997, nearly 2,500 people from Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq and farther afield were detained while illegally crossing the Czech-Slovak border; this year's totals are running about 20 percent ahead of last year's.

Although no one knows for sure how many illegal immigrants go undetected, many officials estimate that only 5 percent to 10 percent of those who make the crossing are caught, which means that perhaps 1,500 to 2,000 people a month get through.

Maj. Josef Kubanik, who heads enforcement on the toughest section, a 22-mile stretch that includes Stary Hrozenkov, knows why. Kubanik, a bear of a man who wears his shirt unbuttoned almost to the waist, cites a litany of inadequacies in staffing and equipment that make it nearly impossible for him to maintain effective control of the border.

Batteries in the radios the patrols carry are so old they run out halfway through a shift. Only six vehicles are available, and each one is allotted just 40 gallons of gasoline a month--about a week's worth of driving. Kubanik's headquarters has no holding cell for the immigrants his agents manage to intercept.

"We don't even have enough money for toilet paper, so we have to bring our own," he said, shaking his head.

Kubanik's men, most of whom come from local villages and have years of experience in the woods and hills around Stary Hrozenkov, have to rely on instinct and centuries-old methods of detection, taking their cues from broken spider webs, spooked animals or snapped twigs.

The guides who lead illegal immigrants across the border-- mostly local Czechs and Slovaks-- outman and outgun the police. Many are equipped with cellular telephones, radios and vans that can carry 30, 40 or 50 people per trip. On nights when they want to move immigrants, they simply track the police patrols and then find an unguarded route across the border.